In addition to the surprise party his family held for him on Sunday, July 22, which was, in fact, a surprise, it was no surprise that Middaugh came out on top during Wednesday, July 25's Vail Recreational District East West Hospitality Mountain Bike Series Camp Hale Hup.

And while the Middaugh quest for world domination continued with Sullivan, 14, winning men's sport and Porter, 12, winning his age group, the annual excursion to the former home of the 10th Mountain Division provided a nice change of pace for the series' riders on Wednesday.

Making a peleton

In some ways, the Camp Hale Hup has less Hup-ing — if that's a verb — because the course only has one relatively short uphill stretch of singletrack. There's more cruising and the goal of a lot of riders was to get into the lead pack of his or her respective divisions.

"If you're not with a group, it's hard to maintain your momentum," Avon's Terry Stimac said. "The key to this race is getting on a train, staying with a fast group."

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"You don't have as much steep climbing," Eagle-Vail's Jay Sapp said. "You can get into a group and do what the do in the Tour (de France), get in the peleton, if you're fast enough out of the gate to join them."

And unlike the Tour, where riders have to go, regardless of the heat or rain, Wednesday's race at a higher altitude produced comfortable temperatures on Wednesday, with, perhaps, a touch of luck from the weather gods.

"It's awesome because I'm from Leadville," Roxanne Hall said. "We came from rain and the rain up in Leadville is freezing cold. This was quite pleasant."

Watching the Tour

While the VRD Wednesday series is sometimes jokingly referred to as the "Tour de Wednesday" because some are bit overzealous about the competition, it's no surprise that the Wednesday warriors are watching the Tour de France

"It's kind of hard not to watch Peter Sagan," Stimac joked.

"Anybody but Team Sky," Sapp said of his rooting interests against the team that is dominating this year. "I'm an underdog guy."

Sapp may be disappointed by the underdogs' chances, but he has picked up tips from watching.

"I think a long time ago watching how they work their legs closer to the bar changed my pedaling stroke years ago," he said. "And it's kind of paid off."

The next installment of the series is the Berry Creek Bash on Aug. 15.